Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L-R), Bolivia's President Evo Morales, Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos, Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, Chile's President Michelle Bachelet, China's President Xi Jinping and Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes talk at a group photo session during the 6th BRICS summit and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) in Brasilia July 16, 2014. (Reuters / Ueslei Marcelino) / Reuters

The idea to establish a parliamentary forum emerged as a result of the active development of diverse cooperation within the framework of BRICS.

Leaders of the
member-states regularly hold top-level meetings. A new BRICS bank
– New Development Bank – is being currently established. The
BRICS countries are united by their aspiration to make common
cause on issues concerning global development and shaping a
global financial architecture that meets the requirements of the
21st century. They actively cooperate within the G20, and
contribute substantially to its agenda. There are currently 25
areas where BRICS cooperate. So it would be logical to add a
parliamentary dimension to them.

Traditional European parliamentary forums, on their part, cover
only Europe or the OSCE space at most. They do not operate
outside these regions.

The BRICS parliamentary forum could address in earnest such
questions and promote such values as sovereignty and independence
of states, prevention of change of government by means of outside
interference.

BRICS member-states possess their common denominator of values
that differs significantly from the Euro-Atlantic one, which over
the last decades has largely mutated towards hyper-liberalism.
The forum could provide a framework for discussion of possible
ways of resolution of regional conflicts and reforming the
existing international institutions, for example, the IMF.
According to Russian parliamentarian Alexey Pushkov, practice
shows that discussion of these questions on traditional European
platforms lead nowhere. The majority, guided by Euro-Atlantic
discipline, would block any draft resolutions containing
assessments that differ from these narrow-minded attitudes, stuck
in the Cold War past.

It is also important that BRICS have no military dimension as it
pursues exclusively political, economic and financial tasks; it
is these problems that come to the fore at this critical junction
of global development. Its members do not wish to set artificial
limits on their partnerships or to be rigidly tied by external
alliances, making emphasis on network diplomacy instead. Also,
there is concurrence of interests in the field of security as
there is convergence in the understanding of current conflicts.

The first parliamentary forum of BRICS initiated by Russia will
be held in Moscow in early July. Countries from three continents,
which together enjoy 42 percent of the world population and 27
percent of the global GDP, will be represented there.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.